


Eerie

by Marsalias



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marsalias/pseuds/Marsalias
Summary: Something is wrong with Danny Fenton.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 671
Collections: final beauty





	Eerie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bibliophilea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bibliophilea/gifts).



By most metrics, Danny Fenton should have been popular.

His parents, while eccentric, were wealthy inventors who lived on the proceeds from licensing their patents. Once it became apparent that ghosts were real, it became clear they had an important job, one with great influence, an important metric in determining social pecking order at Casper High.

Secondly, Danny was _pretty._ Incredibly pretty. Almost beautiful, in a sort of soft, elfin way. His skin was smooth. His pores were tiny, almost undetectable. He never had any acne. His hair was truly black, not just dark brown, and his eyes were so incredibly blue it looked like someone had chipped pieces out of the sky to make them. As shallow as it was, physical beauty was a great indicator, maybe even the primary basis, of popularity in Casper High.

It wasn't even like he had a bad personality. Sure, he butted heads with Dash a lot, but he was funny, charismatic, even, and he had a laughably obvious protective streak. There was a reason he'd been the one to lead them against Ember and Youngblood.

Speaking of Ember and Youngblood, that event should have boosted him to the top of the Casper High food chain. It shouldn't have mattered that he hadn't been there at the end of the battle. He had been _literally_ thrown overboard! There hadn't been any way for him to rejoin the fight.

He _should_ have been a hero.

Instead, Dash had taken the excuse to exclude him yet again, and everyone had jumped on it, relieved. The idea of Danny Fenton interacting socially with the general population of the school just felt... wrong. Even to the nerds and geeks. Sure, he got between them and Dash, but he wasn't really one of them. He didn't belong.

(Something about him was just... wrong.)

.

Considering how often people in Amity Park encountered ghosts, it could be hard for them to remember, to perceive, how _off_ the ghosts were. How _wrong_ they seemed. How _inhuman._

But then, every so often, they'd get a reminder.

Perhaps that reminder came with a too-close look at a ghost. At their bright auras, glowing eyes, and sharp teeth, at their forms, which were oddly idealized even when they were utterly grotesque.

Perhaps it was seeing how they moved. That smooth economy, that grace which came from lack of physical bodies, the absence of muscle cramps, of the need to breathe, of true solidity. That liquid way of movement. The warping, the momentary separation and re-merging of various body parts as they fought one another.

Perhaps it was their voices. The buzz and hum, the unearthly harmonics, the impossible languages, the layering, the echoes, one voice on top of another.

Even so... Even so, the ghosts were still... allowed, somehow. As _wrong_ as they were, they were still natural, still _right_ , and, more than anything else, this is what reminded people of their wrongness.

.

Phantom was not as wrong as the other ghosts. His movements were graceful, yes, and he warped his body just as much as the other ghosts, his legs regularly twisting into a vaporous tail, but he seemed to have a better memory of how joints and bones worked than most, he was just a little bit more human.

And maybe this was why, just as much as anything, he was so popular. Why he was loved.

Oh, he would have been appreciated either way, for keeping the ghosts away, for protecting the town, but the difference would have been that between a summer's day and a friend offering you an umbrella. You don't love a force of nature.

Phantom was the ghost seen most often in Amity Park. People watched him.

Many of those people knew Danny Fenton. Perhaps, seeing Phantom, this ghost who moved just a little like a human, made them realize what was wrong with Danny Fenton.

Danny Fenton moved like a ghost.

.

There were whispers in the hallways of Casper High. Whispers that fell quiet whenever Danny or his friends came near.

 _Danny was dead,_ they whispered. _He's been dead for years._

 _He's not dead,_ claimed others, _but immortal. A vampire or something. I've seen paintings with him in them._

_I don't think he's Danny Fenton at all. Just a shape-shifter ghost._

_He could be possessed. Should we tell his parents?_

The whisperers watched Danny, and as the day went on, the whispers died. Not because the whisperers thought better of them, but because Danny watched them back.

.

Many of the rumors were refuted. Danny did grow up in Amity Park, after all, and he did live in a house with ghost hunters.

No one had _really_ believed any of the rumors. At least, not the more outlandish ones.

The fact remained: Danny was eerie.

.

"People are scared of me," said Danny. He stared into the air above the mall food court, eyes tracking something only he could see.

"Which 'me' are we talking about here?" asked Tucker, licking sauce off his thumbs.

"This me," said Danny.

Sam snorted. "No they're not. No offense, Danny, but you're one of the least intimidating people I know."

"Not to mention, Dash beats you up every week. At least."

Danny hummed. "He beats me up because he's scared of me," he said. He drummed his fingers on the table in a complicated rhythm. "It makes him feel like he's in control. But, deep down, he's still scared."

"Why?" asked Sam.

"He knows something is wrong with me. They all do. But they don't know what." His hand stilled, and he turned his gaze to Sam and Tucker "People are afraid of things they don't understand."

"I don't always understand you, Danny," said Tucker, gesturing with a french fry, "but I'm definitely not afraid of you."

"That's different," said Danny, a faint crease appearing between his eyebrows. "You were there. You know what happened."

"How do you even know they're scared?" asked Sam, reasonably.

"I heard them," said Danny. "You know how everyone was staring at us, at me, a few days ago? That's what they were talking about." He put his hands in his lap, under the table. "And," he said, "I can sort of feel it. I can... taste it."

"Huh," said Sam. "Well, that isn't totally unexpected, is it?"

"Nope," said Tucker, finishing the last of his fries. "Can you do it with anything else?" he asked.

"What?" said Danny.

"Like, other emotions. It could be a cool power."

"Guys," said Danny, "I just told you that I _eat emotions._ Like, you know," he lowered his voice even further, " _Spectra._ "

"It's not like you're trying to scare people, though," said Sam, handing Tucker a napkin. She frowned as Danny shifted and blushed. " _Are_ you?"

"No!" said Danny, quickly. "But... I like it. Part of me likes it."

"Okay," said Sam. "Why?"

"I don't know. Does it matter?"

"Intentions matter," said Sam.

Danny frowned, contemplating. His eyes flicked back to whatever was floating over the food court. "It makes me feel stronger," said Danny.

"Like, literally?"

"A little," said Danny. "But... It's more... Them being scared, it tells me that I'm strong. That I can, I don't know..."

"Protect the town?"

"I guess," said Danny.

"'Is it better to be loved or feared?'"

"Huh?"

"Machiavelli. Wrote a book about ruling. One of the questions he talked about was about whether or not it was better for a ruler to be loved or feared. He said 'both' was preferable, but if you had to choose, you should choose to be feared."

"I'm not _ruling_ anybody, Sam," said Danny, rolling his eyes. "Like you guys said, I get beat up all the time."

"Yeah," said Sam. "But people look to you in a crisis, and whether you know it or not, you protect the town. That's how feudal rulers got their start. They defended their territories from invaders."

"That's one theory," mumbled Danny.

"Hey, think of it this way," said Tucker. "As Phantom, you stop people from being afraid, so, really, you're just balancing things out."

Danny gave a skeptical sort of half-laugh, but he did feel better.

"By the way, do you want to share what you've been looking at?"

"Nothing important," said Danny. "Just, you know, another monster." He smile, showing sharp teeth. "I think its afraid of me, too."


End file.
